Laura Mayfield Tomokiyo Largely from Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages Michael Cahill and Keren Rice eds What is orthography A system for representing language in written form ID: 551850
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Slide1
Orthography Development
Laura Mayfield TomokiyoSlide2
Largely from:
Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages
Michael Cahill and
Keren
Rice, eds.Slide3
What is orthography?
A system for representing language in written form
Graphemes (individual characters)
Word breaks
Punctuation
Diacritics
Rules for splitting and hyphenation
S
pellingSlide4
Increased attention to orthographies
Financial
Funding connected to literacy
Humanitarian
UNESCO mother tongue education
Technological
Unicode / font support
Cell phones, smart phones, messaging, etc.Slide5
An effective orthography is…
Linguistically sound
Acceptable to all stakeholders
UsableSlide6
Acceptability: Governmental
Are there national policies?
Tone markings disallowed in Ghana
Roman-based orthographies must draw from an official unified alphabet in Cameroon
Is approval required?
CAR must have all new orthographies approved by the national government
Ethiopia has several possible agencies to seek approval fromSlide7
Acceptability: Sociolinguistic
Which dialect to use
Unilectal
– which one to use? Prestige? Size? Age?
Multilectal
– combine elements, but whose speech does it represent?
Differentiation – allow for levels of standardization
Relationship with other languages
Sometimes desirable to look like another language
Similarity with a familiar or prestigious language
Sometimes desirable
not
to look like another
Motivated by rivalry, identity
Choice of scripts
Cyrillic vs. roman for Serbian/Croatian
Arabic vs. roman for
TuaregSlide8
Usability: Learning
Underrepresentation/Overrepresentation
Fewer/more graphemes than phonemes
Transfer to major languages
Tension between literacy and identity
Readability
Not too many similar characters
Consider fonts (sans serif easier to read)
Testing, testing, testingSlide9
Usability: Production
Unicode compliance
Font rendering
Non-digital printing (custom typewriter keys!)
Entry method (taps, strokes, multi-step)Slide10
Usability: Teaching
How to get speakers to use the orthography?
Phonemic awareness
Teaching materials and instruction
Motivation/opportunity to write
Formative feedback loop
The orthography is only useful if people use it! Slide11
Word boundaries
Many languages are not written with much white space
Orthographers
often intuitively follow a system they are familiar with
Purpose is to help beginning
and
fluent readers read with ease
Some factors to consider:
Syllable structure
Movability
Separability
Conceptual unity
Pronounceability
in isolation
….Slide12
Is Standardization Necessary?
Pros
Streamlines language planning
Easier to generate teaching/learning materials
Basis for a body of literature
Efficient in case of critical endangerment
Cons
How to choose?
Basis for judgments of intellect/ignorance
Obscures diversity in the language
Less relevant in digital ageSlide13
Orthography Diplomacy
Linguist’s tendency is toward systematic, logical, efficient design
Not always compatible with community needs
Non-fluent speakers in teaching roles
Increasingly strong transfer wishes/influences
Specialized symbols, unfamiliar distinctions are just hard to learn
Pomo: “Indian phonics”Slide14
Criteria for a new writing system
Maximum motivation for the learner
Maximum representation of speech
Maximum ease of learning
Maximum transfer
Maximum ease of reproduction
Smalley 1963Slide15
Bias of familiarity
Both linguists and non-linguists have it
Makes each group potentially blind to the preferences/intuitions of the other group
Especially: we can fail to recognize that non-linguists / 2L learners of minority language have different transfer issues than we do
Don’t overestimate the ease of learning of phonetically-based alphabets!Slide16
Bias of familiarity
For example
…
S
tudents may not be at all proficient in use of the IPA even after a semester-long course
Even proficient users will transcribe differently depending on whether they are native or non-native speakers – we are coming from different phonological systemsSlide17
Assignments
A
Yanesha
’ Alphabet for the Electronic Age
Mary Ruth Wise
Kurtöp
Orthography Development in Bhutan
Gwendolyn
Hyslop
Case Studies of Orthography Decision Making in Mainland Southeast Asia
Larin
Adams